


Rise

by audreyii_fic



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, The Rise of Skywalker
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, F/M, Ficlet, The Rise of Skywalker Trailer, Unresolved Romantic Tension, for now
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-12 08:30:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18442835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/audreyii_fic/pseuds/audreyii_fic
Summary: Ren and Rey meet in the desert, and it's awkward. Ficlet response to the SWCC Episode IX trailer.





	Rise

**Author's Note:**

> Will it remain canon? Probably not, I just have a lot of feels okay

 

Rey has to tell someone where she's going, so she tells Rose. Rose does not take it well — “I have a bad feeling about this” — but she still keeps watch as Rey creeps out of the _Falcon_ just before dawn. Poe and Finn wouldn’t understand, after all.

 _Rey_ barely understands.

 

***

 

Ren (she can’t call him Ben, she won’t call him Kylo, she’ll bite her tongue off and swallow it before she calls him Supreme Leader) runs her ragged in the desert sand until the sun hangs hot and heavy over their heads and Rey realizes he hasn’t brought any water.

What kind of suicidal fool doesn’t stay hydrated on Jakku?

No wonder he looks like he’s been getting dragged behind a speeder daily since they last met.

Rey silently offers Ren her canteen. He waves her off, which is insulting in ways he, in fairness, probably doesn’t realize; where she grew up, sharing water is as intimate a gesture as an embrace. Which isn’t how Rey means it, but _still_.

“Drink,” she tells his stubborn ass. “You’re not allowed to pass out. We have too much left to do.”

Ren considers her for a long moment. He hasn’t even turned off his lightsaber. Their bond is still muted and muffled, and Rey can’t tell what he’s thinking.

Then he takes the canteen. He drinks. He doesn’t thank her.

 

***

 

At night they shelter in a rock outcropping along the edge of the plains. Ren shows Rey how to light a fire with nothing but the Force. “I told you you needed a teacher,” he says, watching as she roasts porgmeat on a stick.

“Did you bring your own food?” she replies, side-stepping. “Because this is mine. I’m not sharing.”

Ren pulls a bottle of pills out of his pocket and swallows two. Synth-vitamins; provides all the nutrients and calories needed for survival, does nothing for the gnawing of an empty belly.

Rey knows the gnawing of an empty belly. “All right,” she says. “You can have a wing.”

“I’m fine.”

“We trained all day. You have to be hungry.”

“I don’t get hungry.”

Right. Only mere mortals like Rey can starve. No wonder the First Order fell apart.

“Suit yourself,” she mutters.

 

***

 

The stars are as bright as hyperspace, and Rey can’t sleep. If Ren’s breathing on the other side of the cave is any indication, neither can he.

 _I’d never felt so alone_ , she’d told him. How is it she feels lonelier now, with him fifteen feet away, than she did when he’d reached for her from the other side of the universe?

“What do you think the Death Star will be like?” she asks the shadows.

A shuffle. “Dark,” Ren replies. “Very, very dark.”

“You’ll like it then, I guess.”

Long silence, until Rey thinks he must have gone to sleep, then: “I am going to destroy it. Along with whatever’s inside, living or dead. I’ll destroy _all_ of it.”

Rey exhales. “Snoke,” she murmurs, feeling his words more now than she had then. “Skywalker. The Sith. The Jedi.”

“Yes.” He sounds pleased with her understanding. “It’s not enough to let the past die. We have to kill it, Rey. You and I. Side by side. That’s our destiny.”

(She’d known that since his mind cleaved to hers. It hadn’t taken their joint vision of Palpatine to bring them back together. No matter what paths they chose, their journeys would always arrive at the same destination. The Force willed it.)

“Though it would have been easier,” he mutters, “if you’d stayed with me in the first place.”

Oh. Now they’re going to get to it. Good. They’ve been dancing around this for too long. “It would have been easier,” she retorts, “if you’d _left_ with me in the first place.”

“I offered you the galaxy.”

“I didn’t _want_ the galaxy.”

“Then what _do_ you want, Rey? Do you even know?” At her silence — her brutal silence — he continues, neutral and empty: “You don’t, do you.”

“What I want,” Rey bites out at last, “is to get some rest. What about you?”

“I want to be whole,” he says simply.

 

***

 

The next morning dawns even hotter, and it’s time to go. They have a destiny to face.

Rey scrubs her face clean with a cloth until she forgets how much her muscles ache. Ren still looks like death. “Did you sleep at all?” she asks.

“I’ll be fine.”

“Of course you will.” She finishes lacing her boots. “Come on, let’s go.”

“Rey.”

Rey turns back. “Yes?”

Ren is just... _looking_ at her. His mouth works for a moment, until: “I won’t let you die today.”

Sometimes he just says things, things like this and, and, how is Rey supposed to respond? “Thanks. I won’t let you die today either.”

Ren’s lips twitch. She thinks it’s a smile. “It’s time,” he murmurs. “I’m ready.”

“Good.”

And they walk into the blazing sunlight.

 

**Author's Note:**

> i'm on [twitter](https://twitter.com/audreyii_fic) and [youtube](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgF20ExAs_DGZCaAv1GCt3A)


End file.
